In a surprise move, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, the Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with having sexually molested his students, pleaded guilty Monday to two lesser counts of child endangerment and was sentenced to three years’ probation.

Under the plea agreement, Rabbi Kolko, 62, made no admission of sexual wrongdoing. He will not have to register as a sex offender, and pleaded guilty only to a misdemeanor — not a felony.

An interview with Mel Gibson on a local Chicago station has been getting more than the usual amount of play. It seems reporter Dean Richards of WGN popped a question into a fluffy Mel Gibson movie plug session that made the action hero uncomfortable.

On Day 10 of the Israeli mission in Haiti, Danny Biran paused during a phone conversation as a helicopter hovered above him.
“He’s looking for a place to land,” said Biran, an official of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs who has been in Haiti since 36 hours after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

In lieu of a regular posting this week, I am sharing with you the message that I delivered in my own congregation in Forest Hills on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

I do so because it speaks to a subject that I think needs to be on our communal agenda, and about which I feel passionately: how and about what we in the Jewish community disagree, and its implications for our relationship with the world as a whole, and particularly with Israel.

On Jan. 15, more than 700 Jews from a mix of backgrounds will head to the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson for four days of lectures, text-study sessions, performances and workshops at the sixth annual Limmud NY Conference.

01/14/2010

Julie Wiener

Staff Writer

On Jan. 15, more than 700 Jews from a mix of backgrounds will head to the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson for four days of lectures, text-study sessions, performances and workshops at the sixth annual Limmud NY Conference. Inspired by the Limmud Conference in England — which has been around for more than 25 years — Limmud NY has spawned an entire network, with Limmud (Hebrew for “learning”) conferences now in six U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Atlanta and New Orleans.

In his first post-Birthright trip, ‘Momo’ Lifshitz shells out $250,000 to get across his ‘raise your children Jewish’ message. Is it selling?

01/06/2010

Sharon Udasin

Staff Writer

Tel Aviv — Tucked into the rocky thickets of Mount Carmel in northern Israel, 43 American 20-somethings gathered in a hotel conference room to play a simple game — using their bodies as place markers, they lined up across the room according to how important they found dating Jews, and Jews alone.

At first, only four people stood on the “date Jews” side of the room. But when the question changed to marriage, four soon grew to 15. And when marriage changed to raising children Jewish, a good 15 more shuffled over.

Sunday, March 29th, 2009
Here’s a beautiful in-house video about the final days of The Rocky Mountain News, a great paper that died too soon. You needn’t live in Denver to appreciate the loss. My cousin Jack Frank left the Bronx during the Great Depression, on one of FDR’s alphabet programs that brought him to Colorado. In time, he got a job as a reporter for the Rocky. The Rocky made it through that depression. It didn’t make it through this one. Please watch.

As a reporter stands at the entrance of the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon awaiting the arrival of a medical helicopter, air raid sirens begin to wail and people begin running.
“We may be facing another rocket attack,” she says just as a rocket, black smoke gushing from its tail, slams with a thud into the roof of the hospital behind her.
“Oh, my God, oh, my God, what’s going on?” the reporter asks as she ducks and then runs with her microphone and cameraman into the hospital.

Jehoshua Pomeranz and Jackie Gartenberg lived in the same Monsey community for more than three decades. Their kids attended the same school. And way back when, their wives played in the same bowling league. But only recently did they discover that they are first cousins — and that Gartenberg is a kohen (a member of the priestly tribe). The ironic twist? They still haven’t met. That’s because it was Pomeranz’s recent aliyah — and the newspaper article chronicling it — that brought them together.